Naval Crown slight choice in wide-open Maurice de Gheest

The Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest, which caters to long-winded sprinters and fast-twitch milers, headlines the weekend racing action in Europe.

The Deauville fixture on Sunday drew a field of 13 that English betting markets are saying is evenly matched; seven horses as of Friday were priced between 7-2 and 11-1.

Run down a straight course, the de Gheest is contested over 6 1/2 furlongs, farther than the five-furlong Euro-sprint specialists can handle and sometimes within range of the right miler. Space Blues, who won the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Mile, captured the de Gheest in 2020.

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets.

Space Blues’s connections, owner Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby, have the tepid favorite for Sunday’s race, Naval Crown, whose eighth-place finish in the Prix Jean Prat last summer, his most recent trip to France, can be chalked up to a soft course. Naval Crown broke from a terrible inside post in the Al Quoz Sprint on the Dubai World Cup card and ran well to finish fourth. He came back to win the Group 1 Platinum Jubilee, where he beat 23 horses, at an overlaid 33-1 on closing day of Royal Ascot. Naval Crown lost little in a 1 1/2-length defeat to the filly Alcohol Free in the six-furlong July Cup, and Sunday’s distance should be right in his wheelhouse.

Meanwhile, 3-year-old Perfect Power has questions to answer. Europe’s top 2-year-old sprinter of 2021 also won a Group 1 at Royal Ascot, handling 3-year-olds in the six-furlong Commonwealth Cup, but in the July Cup he was seventh with no apparent excuse. There’s a chance Perfect Power has hit a developmental lull, and Sunday’s race is a crossroads for the Richard Fahey-trained colt, who gets four pounds from Naval Crown and the other older horses.

The de Gheest probably is farther than the Australian horse Artorius wants to run, and Harry Three and Minzaal are interesting at longer prices.

:: DRF Bets members get FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic. Join now!

England-based Harry Three looked nothing like a Group 1 horse at the start of his 2021 campaign, but the 3-year-old has improved every start this season and thumped listed foes going six furlongs at Deauville July 10 in his stakes debut.

Minzaal had a truncated 3-year-old campaign last fall and finished 13th in the Platinum Jubilee, but he rebounded to beat the capable Go Bears Go in a Group 3 sprint at Newbury on July 13 and could be sitting on a peak performance.

Post time for the de Gheest, expected to be run over good-to-soft ground, is 9:55 a.m. Eastern. Watch and wager at DRFBets.com.